Balkan leaders initial peace agreement

Plan calls for two republics in Bosnia

November 21, 1995
Web posted at: 5:10 p.m. EST (2210 GMT)

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (CNN) -- The presidents of Bosnia,
Croatia and Serbia initialed a wide-ranging peace agreement
Tuesday, signaling what negotiators hope will be an end to
the 43-month civil war in the former Yugoslavia.

Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and
Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina initialed
the agreement at about 4 p.m. EST at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, where negotiations had been held for the last
three weeks. Only a few hours earlier, the talks had
appeared on the verge of collapse.

A formal peace agreement is to be signed next month in Paris.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher said, "On this
Thanksgiving weekend our joint work has made it possible for
the people of Bosnia to spend New Year's Day in peace for the
first time in four years."

Earlier Tuesday, President Clinton announced the agreement in
the Rose Garden of the White House. "The presidents of
Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, have made a historic and heroic
choice," he said. "They have heeded the will of their
people. Whatever the ethnic group, the overwhelming majority
of Bosnia's citizens and the citizens of Serbia and Croatia
want the same thing. They want to stop the slaughter, they
want to put an end to the violence and war, they want to give
their children and grandchildren the chance to lead a normal
life. Today, thank God, the voices of those people have been
heard."

The agreement could clear the way for 20,000 U.S. troops to
enter the former Yugoslavia as part of an international
enforcement effort led by NATO. Clinton said he would consult
with Congress on U.S. involvement in the deployment and ask
for its support once he receives complete details on the
plan.

Under the agreement Bosnia would be preserved as a single
state but still divided into two separate republics -- the
Bosnia-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic.
Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo, would remain united.

On a key point of contention, Clinton added: "Those
individuals charged with war crimes will be excluded from
political life (in Bosnia)." That would effectively exclude
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and others indicted by
an international war crimes tribunal for crimes involving
"ethnic cleansing" of Bosnian Moslems by Bosnian Serbs.

Another roadblock to a peace settlement was a dispute over a
small piece of government-held territory in northern Bosnia.
Serb negotiators want the land, known as the Posavina
corridor, to link Serb holdings elsewhere in Bosnia. More
importantly, the corridor would also be a connection to
Serbia, itself. The Bosnian government wanted to keep the
land as an outlet to trade on the Drina River.